The present invention relates to a system comprising a number of managing systems and a number of managed systems which are managed by said managing system. Each managed system comprises a number of managed objects being of one or more different types. The managed objects represent or manage resources and the managed objects are arranged in a management information tree structure also called a naming tree structure having a root and a number of sub-trees.
The invention also relates to a managed system which comprises a number of managed objects of one or more types representing/managing a number of resources wherein the managed objects are arranged in a naming tree structure comprising the instance names of the managed objects. Still further the invention relates to a telecommunications system with a number of managing systems each managing a number of managed systems with a number of managed objects which represent resources. The managed objects are arranged in a naming tree structure with a number of sub-trees.
The invention also relates to methods for mapping between managed objects of managed systems and resources which are managed or represented by the managed objects and for providing information relating to the sub-tree of the naming tree structure.
System management is known from the fields of data communication and telecommunications. CCITT (now ITU-T) Recommendation M.3010 relates to telecommunications management networks and CCITT Recommendations X.701 and X.720 relate to systems management and management information models of data communication networks.
In a number of known systems managed systems comprise network elements and managing systems are known as operations systems which are used for monitoring and controlling purposes of the equipment and the services which are provided by the network elements.
In some telecommunications systems a network element may be connected to the rest of the telecommunication network via an exchange terminal within the network element which in turn may communicate over a PCM (pulse code modulated) link. The network element is controlled and monitored from an operations system which is connected to the network element over the Q3-interface. In order to provide for the controlling or monitoring of the network element managed objects are created e.g. comprising subscriber data for subscribers.
The managed objects are designed for the operations systems and they show those parts of the network element which are to be monitored and controlled from the operations systems. The internal working within the network element is not interesting to an operations system and this is therefore not shown to the operations systems. In practice there are a number of standardized managed objects for various traffic applications which means that network elements from different vendors can be monitored and controlled in a similar manner.
However, for example for switching network elements, seen from the management point of view, there may be an enormous amount of managed objects such as for example millions of managed objects. Therefore, in order to keep track of all the managed objects and to make it possible to give them all a unique name, the managed objects are kept in a tree structure called a naming tree or a management information tree, c.f. CCITT X.720. The naming tree forms the management view of a network element and the relationships forming the naming tree are denoted containment relations. A containment relationship means that a managed object of one class can contain other managed objects of the same or different classes and it is a relationship between managed object instances. A managed object is only contained within one containing managed object and containing managed objects may themselves be contained in other managed objects. The containing relationship is used for naming managed objects. Managed objects which are named in the terms of another object are denoted sub-ordinate objects of the other managed object and a managed object which establishes the name in question for other objects is called a superior managed object of these other objects which then form sub-ordinate objects. The highest level of the naming tree is denoted a root and it is an object having no associated properties.
All managed objects are given an instance name upon creation. All managed objects sub-ordinated another managed object must have different instance names which means that the instance name thus not have to be unique within the naming tree but two or more managed objects can have the same instance name on condition that they are sub-ordinated different managed objects, i.e. that they have different xe2x80x9cparentsxe2x80x9d. Furthermore, every managed object has a distinguished name. This name is unique within the naming tree and the naming starts from the root of the naming tree and ends with the instance name of the managed object. Upon interaction with managed objects the actual traffic resources in the managed object, e.g. the network element, are manipulated. In order to enable manipulation of a resource, a mapping between the external name, i.e. the distinguished name, and an internal name, i.e. the name of the resource, is required and for management operations both resource mapping information and information about sub-trees of the naming tree is required.
In today known systems, the mapping of an external managed object name to an internal resource name and the retrieving of sub-trees is carried out with the use of tables, see e.g. xe2x80x9cDesign of Protocol Independent Management Agent to Support SNMP and CMIP Queriesxe2x80x9d by Subrata Mazumdar, International Symposium on Integrated Network, April 1993. In xe2x80x9cDevelopment of TMN to a Family of Switching Networks Elementsxe2x80x9d by M. Kantola et al, International Switching Symposium, Vol. 1 October 1992 is merely submitted that access to the information is needed, i.e. the information that is needed to associate each operation, object instance and attribute operated on to the appropriate resource in various DX 200 computer units. Nothing is however said about how this is provided. For performance reasons these tables are stored in random access memories RAM. However, if the number of managed objects is very high, the tables that are required need to be large. For example in a GSM telecommunications network having a Home Location Register including about 2 million subscribers the number of managed objects will be more than 50 millions and the tables will require approximately 5 Gbyte of RAM (this of course depends on the implementation; the estimation merely being given for illustrative purposes). The memory consumption of the two tables containing mapping and naming tree information is proportional to the number of managed objects. Moreover, the performance depends on how the access to the tables is provided etc. It is thus obvious that for large managed systems (e.g. network elements) comprising a high number of managed objects, the known solutions are unsatisfactory and if the managed systems (network elements) are very large, the known solutions will not even work.
What is needed is therefore a system with a low memory consumption even if the number of managed object is high or very high. Furthermore a system is also needed wherein the performance is high even if the number of managed objects is high or even very high.
Particularly a system is needed in which resource mapping information between managed objects and resources can be provided in an adequate way without requiring a high memory consumption and advantageously without producing a decrease in performance even if the number of managed objects is high or very high. A system is also needed through which information about sub-trees of a naming tree can be provided in a satisfactory way without requiring a high memory consumption and without leading to a low performance irrespective of whether the managed systems are large or very large, or if the number of managed objects is high.
Furthermore a managed system comprising a number of managed objects is needed wherein both information on resource mapping and information about sub-trees of the naming tree can be provided without requiring too much memory and still maintaining a high performance irrespective of whether the managed system is small or large, or comprises few or even very high numbers of managed objects.
A telecommunications system comprising systems for meeting the above mentioned requirements is also needed as well as a method for providing information on resource mapping and on sub-trees of a naming tree.
Therefore a system comprising a number of managing systems managing a number of managed systems each comprising a number of managed objects of one or more different types is provided wherein the managed objects represent or manage resources. The managed objects are arranged in a naming tree structure and only information related to the type of the managed objects is stored and in order to derive the required instance information, algorithms are used. Particularly the algorithms are used for providing information of the mapping between resources here also called resource object and managed objects and advantageously there is at least one algorithm for each managed object type. The selection of the algorithm to be used may particularly depend on the type of the managed object and advantageously only type data is stored in relation to the managed objects of a managed system. Particularly each managed object has a unique distinguished name and an instance name which is unique within the scope of its superior managed object.
Advantageously, for mapping a distinguished name of a managed object to a resource or a resource object, the algorithm corresponding to the type of the managed object is selected and advantageously the algorithm uses the instance name of the managed object and information of the resource implementation in order to derive which specific resource or resource object that is managed by a given managed object instance. In a particular embodiment, wherein it is desired to retrieve the sub-tree of a given managed object, sub-tree retrievel algorithms are used of which a first is given by the type of the sub-tree root managed object. This is thus in case the sub-tree of a given managed object is needed; however the invention also relates to embodiments wherein this is not wanted. In this case, however, may for each type of managed object a sub-tree of retrieval algorithm be stored and these algorithms are arranged in a managed objects type tree structure. Advantageously, for a sub-tree retrival, the managed object type tree structure is searched from the root and downwards in hierarchy and via the sub-tree retrieval algorithms the corresponding managed object instances are found. In order to deliver the sub-tree comprises the input data advantageously the name and the type of the sub-tree root. A sub-tree retrival algorithm may particularly provide for an iteration over all resource instances corresponding to the type of the managed object and for each identified managed object instance return the instances of a sub-ordinate managed object to the sub-tree retrieval mapping algorithm. However, the use of iteration algorithms merely relates to one particular embodiment and how the algorithms can be used, however a number of other alternatives are also possible.
According to a number of embodiments at least one managed object can manage one resource (i.e. resource object) but one managed object may also manage more than one resource or resource object. Still further one resource or resource object can be managed only by one managed object but it can also be managed by more than one managed object.
In a particular embodiment a managing system comprises an operations system and a managed system comprises a network element. Any system as discussed above may particularly be used in a telecommunications system.
Furthermore a managed system is provided which comprises a number of managed objects of one or more types representing/managing a number of resources. The managed objects are arranged in a naming tree structure comprising the instance names of the managed objects and only data relating to the type of the managed objects is stored and algorithms are used for deriving/providing the information relating to the instance of the managed object resource object that is desired.
The managed system may particularly comprise a network element or still more particularly it may comprise a home location register of a mobile telecommunications system and the types of the managed object may in this case for example relate to subscriber InHlr, msisdnInHlr, basicServiceGroupInHlr etc.
Still further a telecommunications system is provided which comprises a number of managing systems each managing a number of managed systems comprising a number of managed objects representing resources. Managed objects are arranged in a naming tree structure comprising a number of sub-trees, each managed object having a unique distinguished name and an instance name unique within the scope of the superior object and a number different managed object types being provided. Information relating to the type of the managed object is stored and algorithms are used for providing instance information.
Particularly the managing and managed systems respectively of the telecommunication system may comprise operations systems and network elements respectively. Advantageously the algorithms comprise one resource mapping algorithm for each managed object type. Still more particularly the algorithms may comprise one sub-tree retrieval algorithm per managed object type which then may be arranged in a tree structure based on the types of the managed objects. For mapping between managed object and the relevant resource or resource object, the type of the managed object advantageously gives the resource mapping algorithm to be used. Still more particularly, in order to provide a sub-tree of a given managed object the type of the managed object gives the sub-tree retrieval algorithms to be used through which the consecutive relevant sub-tree algorithms are traversed in order to find the managed object instance names.
A method for mapping a managed object of a managed system to a resource managed by the managed object is also provided. It comprises the steps of storing type-related data on the managed object in a storage, selecting a particular resource mapping algorithm corresponding to the type of the managed object, said algorithm using the instance name of the managed object and information on the particular resource implementation to derive the resource instance managed by the managed object instance.
A method is also given for providing information relating to a sub-tree of a naming tree structure in which a managed object of a managed system is arranged. It comprises the steps of storing one sub-tree retrival algorithm for each managed object type in an algorithm tree structure, giving the name and the type of the sub-tree root, and via each sub-tree retrieval algorithm corresponding to a given type finding the instance name of the managed object of that type and inputting the found instance names to the consecutive subordinate sub-tree retrieval algorithms etc. until there are no subordinate managed objects.